Talk:Automatic card shuffler

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Revision as of 05:57, 8 March 2007

We received your report on the automatic card shuffler and were confused. The report appears to be incomplete, and it fails to address the items agreed upon for deliverables. You were highly recommended by Professor Michalek as being a confident team with the necessary skills for the project, so we cannot understand why you have submitted such a poor and incomplete document to us – is there some mistake? It’s clear that you have begun to do some work on the project, since we see an initial BOM and some bulleted lists, but the document fails to adequately address any of the items we asked for, and it doesn’t even look like a report at all, but rather just some notes.

We also received a letter from you via the Blackboard site that provides somewhat of an overview, but you must understand that your documentation is far below our expectations. We will plan to meet with you this Wednesday to discuss the situation and determine what steps should be taken next. We expect that your next report will deliver the missing information that was supposed to appear in this report and do a competent job addressing the requirements for the next deadline.

We received your revised report on the automatic card shuffler, and it looks like you have done some interesting analysis and came up with a few good ideas for minor improvements of the design. We will be looking forward to your next report to see if you come up with more substantial design ideas or are able to do more in-depth analysis of your proposed improvements if they turn out to be straightforward. Detailed comments follow:

• In our company (and in most companies that we know of) reports will contain an executive summary that typically outlines your conclusions, not just a summary of what topics will be discussed in the report. This would be helpful for us in the next report, since our executives typically do not have time to read the full report. [We have revised our executive summary to includes our conclusions]
• You mention an important point about randomness - if card shuffler shuffles the cards too consistently, then a card-counter might be able to predict the outcome of the deck. The need for a certain amount of randomness might be very important in these situations. [Addressed in section 6 - Market Research and Observations and in the Card Shuffler Improvement Ideas page]
• You mention “human error” several times in the report – what do you mean? To what kind of “error” are you referring. [Addressed in executive summary]
• You mention that the shuffler will save time; however, the dealer must still cut cards, set them, wait for the shuffler to operate, and then remove the deck from the tray. Have you observed that it actually saves time in practice? [Section 6 - Market Research and Observations]
• You bring up an important point about the need to avoid damaging cards (this should be a customer need). The automatic shuffler reduces bending, but it also increases side impact as cards bang against the tray. Is the effect of side impact negligible, or will this wear cards out over time? [Section 6 - Market Research and Observations]
• Removable tray – do cards have to be turned over to get them out, revealing bottom card? [Section 2.4 Use and Operation]
• It is difficult to understand the description of how the product works without a labeled picture of the assembly. Please include one in your revised report. [Section 2 How the System Fucntions]
• The parts list appears to be very incomplete. For example, the cover, base, and card tray appear to be missing from the list, and you did not respond to our request to identify likely manufacturing processes for each component. The “clear top cover” also appears to be an assembly.
• We’re curious about your analysis that the motor was probably the only component that the manufacturer did not produce themselves. Gears, wires, and fasteners are typically purchase components.
• Interesting DFE opportunity. Do you think there is a good solution where the user can actuate the shuffling process without an electric motor (for example, by pressing down on a lever or turning a crank?) [covered in Section 4.1 Design for Environment]
• Interesting items in your FMEA table – what are your recommendations? Also, what happens if the cards are shuffled without the tray in place? [Section 5 Failure Mode and Effects Analysis]